Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Açılmış bahs-i demsâzım ki doğmuş hûrşîd-i maksûd
Bi-hamdi'llâh sa‘îdem tâ ezel kim tâli‘im mes‘ûd
Yanar âteş dem-â-dem nâ-pedîd olmaz minâremde
Ki biz kãlû belâdan berü ocağız olmayız bî-od
Leb-i la‘lin görüp tâ göz ciger-gâhımda oynar göz
Derûnumdan çıkup âteş serimden baş virüpdür dûd
Getürmüş var yokdan rağbetim ağzın temennâsı
Görünmez ‘aynıma birdir yanımda bûd yâ nâ-bûd
Gubâr-ı reh-güzârın üzre cân nakdin nisâr itdim
Budur sarf eyledim varım ki el-cûdu mine'l-mevcûd
Kemend-i zülfin ey büt olmayan her dem giriftârı
Le fî husrin diyârında gezer hasret-zede nâ-sûd
Meger nûş eylemiş Mîr Nigârî kim özün bilmez
Düşüpdür bârgâhında yatur şâm u seher bî-hûd

In English

1. My heart-to-heart talk has opened, for the sun of desire has risen; praise be to God, I am happy, my fortune has been blessed since pre-eternity. (The sense of the couplet is uncertain.)

2. Fire burns every moment in my minaret (my place of light) and never vanishes; for since "Kâlû belâ" we have been a hearth, we are never without fire.

3. Seeing your ruby lip, as long as the eye plays in my liver, fire has come out from within me and smoke risen from my head. (This rendering of the couplet is tentative.)

4. The wish for your mouth has brought my desire from nothing into being; (that mouth) is not seen by my eye; to me being and not-being are one.

5. Over the dust of your path I scattered the coin of my soul; this is what I spent of what I have, for generosity is made from what exists.

6. O idol, whoever is not at every moment captive to the lasso of your tress wanders, stricken with longing and without rest, in the land of "le fî husr" (in loss).

7. Mîr Nigârî must have drunk, for he does not know himself; he has fallen at your court and lies senseless evening and morning.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The fourth couplet works one of the best-known images of divan poetry: the non-existence of the beloved's mouth. The beauty's mouth is imagined so small that it cannot be seen, and no one knows whether it exists or not. Nigârî builds the thought in philosophical language. Wishing for the mouth has made the lover's desire "yokdan var", brought being out of nothing; yet since that mouth is not seen by the eye, "bûd" and "nâ-bûd", being and not-being, are one to the poet. The fifth couplet carries on the same play of being and nothing. The lover has scattered his soul on the dust of the path and explains it with an Arabic saying: "el-cûdu mine'l-mevcûd", generosity is made from what exists. One gives from what one has, and the lover has nothing in hand but his soul.

In the second couplet the words "kâlû belâ" appear. In verse 172 of the sura al-A'raf God asks the souls, "Am I not your Lord?", and they answer "Belâ", yes. In Sufism love is thought to begin with this pre-eternal covenant. The poet says, "we have been a hearth since kâlû belâ". "Ocak", hearth, is both the place where fire burns and, in Sufism, the name of a spiritual lineage, the path handed down from sheikh to sheikh; given that Nigârî came of a line of descendants of the Prophet, the word carries a sense of family and path. In "bî-od", without fire, at the end of the line, the Turkish word "od" has entered the rhyme.

The sixth couplet takes a phrase from the sura al-Asr: "İnne'l-insâne le fî husr", truly man is in loss. Whoever is not captive to the beloved's tress wanders restless in this land of loss. "Nâ-bûd" and "mevcûd" are both among the ghazal's rhyme words; the argument of being and nothing reaches down into the rhyme.

Bibliography

Online sources